Currently, in practice, blanks intended to be set up to form boxes are supplied in stacks on pallets. Often, there are two or more, generally four, stacks of blanks on a pallet. When a pallet with blanks arrives, in most cases, the stacks are covered by a cover to stabilize the stacks relative to each other and to prevent damaging of the topmost blanks of the stack. Often, so-called intermediate sheets are placed at regular distances between the stacks. Such intermediate sheets have a dimension that is such that a single intermediate sheet extends between all stacks of blanks that are on the pallet. The intermediate sheets, in turn, also impart additional stability to the stacks.
The stacks of blanks are processed manually by an operator. This includes, inter alia, getting a pallet with blanks from a warehouse, removing the cover from the stacks of blanks of the pallet concerned and then manually removing partial stacks of blanks and placing these partial stacks on an unstacking station or placing the blanks one by one on a blank main discharge assembly for transport for further processing, for example to a box setup device known per se. Periodically, the operator will have to remove and store the intermediate sheets somewhere. When the pallet is empty, the operator will have to move the pallet to a storage and proceed to fetch a next pallet with new blanks and process it similarly.